Visualization and control of the straw-burning boiler in the spa town of Bechyne

In 2010, the reconstruction of the central boiler room was successfully completed in the spa town of Bechyne. It included installing a 2,500kW biomass (corn straw) hot-water boiler and two storage tanks and building associated storage areas.

To control and monitor the industrial processes, Tecomat PLCs and the Reliance SCADA/HMI system are used. An integrated surveillance camera system was also installed. The Reliance system is prepared to integrate the existing exchange station network with Johnson Controls systems.

ERDING, a Czech company headquartered in Brno, is the investor and author of the project documentation. It is also the operator of the district heating for the town of Bechyne. The control systems and the visualization system including the project documentation were implemented by the Energie MaR company.

Control system

A stand-alone modular Tecomat Foxtrot CP-1004 control system is used to control the boiler and the processes of combustion and deashing. Another Tecomat Foxtrot CP-1004 is used to control the output temperature of the heating water (heat accumulation). This PLC handles storing and utilizing the storage tank heat, controls the output temperature, the heat pipeline flow rate, ventilation, and the combustion air intake.

Data transfer between the control systems is based on the TCP/IP protocol. The advantage of the direct interconnection of the control systems is that it is independent of the control PC.

A separate PLC is used to control the delivery and introduction of fuel into the boiler. Data transfer between the fuel delivery and the boiler control is based on I/O modules.

Visualization of the boiler room

The main control room is equipped with one control PC and a 24" LCD monitor. The Reliance 4 SCADA/HMI system, which communicates with the Tecomat Foxtrot CP-1004 PLCs via Ethernet, was installed to visualize the boiler room.

Two communication channels are defined within the visualization project. Channel 1 provides communication within a local network (LAN), channel 2 allows a remote user to connect via the Internet. This solution allows creating more independent control work stations.

Thanks to several well-arranged visualization screens, the operating personnel can view and control the following processes:

• Fuel delivery and introduction
• Combustion
• Heating water used for supplying heat for the town of Bechyne
• Filtering and cooling of gaseous combustion products generated during the operation of the boiler room
• Removal and transport of solid combustion products generated during the operation of the boiler room
• Ventilation

Examples of visualization windows

Visualization of the straw-burning process

Visualization of the water-heating process

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